Daqian Jiang
University of Alabama, AL·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Some chemicals released by farming and industry persist in soil and water, where they can harm ecosystems and people. This research develops ways to clean up these pollutants and to track where they come from.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
Chemistry
- Topics
environmental remediation
soil remediation
glyphosate
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Sep 2027
What they work on
- Characterize how glyphosate breaks down during electrokinetic biodegradation (EK-Bio), using electric fields to boost soil microbes, under varying environmental and operating conditions in three representative soils.
- Uncover the chemical and biological mechanisms of glyphosate degradation in EK-Bio using analytical chemistry and molecular biology, and build a nonlocal reactive-transport model of glyphosate fate in treated soil.
- Evaluate and optimize a compact reactor combining flow-electrode capacitive deionization with a bioelectrochemical system to remove selenate and selenite from wastewater and convert them to non-toxic elemental selenium.
- Identify the microbial mechanisms of selenium reduction in the reactor using metagenomic sequencing, and guide its optimization with life cycle and global sensitivity analyses.
- Quantify the use, accumulation and release of PFAS across the United States through a national material flow analysis, map geographic hotspots, and characterize supply-chain and socioeconomic drivers of PFAS use.
More about the research
It combines lab treatment technologies driven by electricity and microbes with large-scale data and modeling.
Why it matters
Farmland contaminated with glyphosate, industrial wastewater carrying toxic selenium, and widespread PFAS pollution all threaten ecosystems and potentially human health. Cheaper and more efficient cleanup methods could help farmers and industries treat contaminated soil and water before it reaches rivers and aquifers. National data on where PFAS are used and released could help regulators judge whether PFAS policies work and focus efforts on contamination hotspots.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Electrokinetic Biodegradation of Glyphosate: Feasibility, Mechanism, and Transport Modeling
NSF · Oct 2023 – Sep 2027
CAREER: Establishing a Knowledge Base for Use and Discharge of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances
NSF · Aug 2022 – Jul 2027
An integrated technology for efficient selenium remediation
NSF · Sep 2023 – Dec 2026
Closest labs
Timothy Schroeder
Bennington College, VT·Earth & Environmental Science
Characterize how PFAS ("forever chemicals") spread from contamination sources through groundwater, surface water, soils, vegetation and wildlife at Vermont field research sites.
Lin Li
Tennessee State University, TN·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure how the replacement PFAS F-53B and GenX sorb to, desorb from and degrade in soils, to understand their persistence and mobility.
Roger Tipton
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure PFAS concentrations, including the newest generation of these compounds, in Arctic Ocean seawater from the surface to 3,000 meters, using samples collected on an icebreaker transect from Alaska to Norway.
The school
University of Alabama: 22 labs on PI Pages, $221M a year on research, 235 research doctorates a year.
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